The Dark Path
by dr100
Summary: Following on from the events of 'Mysterious Friends' - the 12th Doctor, Clara, Danny and Amber cross time and space to uncover the truth as to who was responsible for their failed assassination. But things get messy when the Doctor and friends split and arrive somewhere entirely unexpected. Episode 2 of 3 in an all new series of adventures starring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

**Doctor Who **

**The Dark Path**

**Episode 2 of 3**

**By Nathan Mullins**

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"Who the hell are you?" The question was directed towards the Doctor, when he reached his destination. "Who the hell am I?" he barked, pulling his jacket down in the wind. "I'm the Doctor," he answered. "I'm here because someone's up to no good." He prowled his whereabouts. "And I bet you know who I mean," he added. "Of course you do. Your brow's wet. You're sweating under the pressure. NOW TALK!" The strange little man bowed for a second and looked up at the Doctor from his shoes. "Of course, Sir, of course." "Why do you call me Sir?" asked the Doctor. "Who are you anyway?" The stranger stood up and frowned back at the old man. "I summoned you here. You're here because of me!"

The Doctor shook his head and roamed the room he was in. "I'm afraid you're wrong," he replied. "I came here because I was curious. Not because you ordered me to do so." The man facing the Doctor smiled. "What?" asked the Doctor. "Why are you smiling?" "Can't a man be proud to see his Doctor?" he wondered. "It was after all I who made the link possible. You're no longer on Earth." "Then where am I?" demanded the Doctor. "Skaro!" declared the stranger. "I am the Professor. You may only refer to me as the 'professor'. You may not know my name, age or date of birth." "Why?" asked the Doctor. "Because if any of that precious information fell into the hands of the Daleks, I'd be taken in for questioning." The Doctor understood. "One thing..." he said, in a whisper. "The Daleks don't have hands." The Professor laughed. "Jolly good thing too!"

In a moment, the Doctor realised he was alone. Those he had crossed across from Earth with hadn't made the trip with him. "I was travelling with three others," he said, talking at length to the Professor. "Clara, Danny and Amber. Any idea where they've got to?" The professor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. You see...when I asked for you, the link held just enough power to transport one person here. Not four. Sorry." "Sorry?" muttered the Doctor. "My friends are out there, somewhere...and your sorry?" The Professor looked away, ashamed. "If I'd only known." The Doctor realised he had been harsh. "Don't worry, Professor. I'm sure my friends are safe. They're intelligent people. They can look after themselves!"

Danny was freezing. It was cold and wet and dark. He and Clara were together in a cave on Skaro wishing they were elsewhere. "Where's Amber?" asked Danny, noting the disappearance of their friend. "She went out for a smoke," replied Clara. "I guess this has all been too much for her." There was a scream from outside. "What's that?" she shrieked. "It must be Amber!" bellowed Danny. He jumped up and rushed outside but Amber had vanished. "She's gone," he told Clara. "Amber's disappeared!" "Not to mention the Doctor, Clara reminded him.

"So what's going on here?" asked the Doctor, looking over the Professor's shoulder at the work he was carrying out. "I'm guessing it has something to do with the Daleks?" The Professor nodded. "Of course." "Well what?" urged the Doctor. "What are they up to this time?" The Professor put down his test tubes and faced the Doctor. "I don't know what's going on but it has something to do with you." The Doctor was stunned. "How have you come to that conclusion?" The Professor waddled past him and took him outside. Handing him a pair of binoculars, the Doctor could just make out his Tardis, - being guarded by over a dozen Daleks.

"But that's impossible!" he muttered. "I left the Tardis on Earth!" The Professor took his binoculars from him and led him back indoors. "The Daleks are planning something. I don't know what. But what I do know is this." The old man whispered. "You and your companions are in danger!"

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**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Doctor Who **

**The Dark Path**

**Episode 2 of 3**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

"Let me go!" screamed Amber, as she was dragged along the plains of Skaro. Keeping her in check were two pig slaves - mutated experiments of the Daleks. "Where are you taking me?" she protested. She could see a sign up ahead close to an alcove. It read: 'Danger beyond this point'. She didn't like the sound of that. "I demand you tell me who you are!" The pigs made only animal noises and could barely respond without grunting.

"We've got to find her!" declared Clara, speaking of the disappearance of Amber. "She could be in trouble!" "But if we go looking for her," replied Danny, "we might miss her altogether. I mean...this could be a trap!" Clara shrugged. "You think Amber's in on it?" "I never said that," whispered Danny. "But why would she suddenly go missing like this? It's a bit peculiar, isn't it?" "Yeah, I guess," she mumbled. "But I still say we do something about it!" Danny watched her step out from the cave and into the light outside. He crept up behind her. "Like what, for instance?" "I don't know," she replied. "Come on!"

"You say we're in danger," said the Doctor, sitting now on a stool in the Professor's hut on Skaro, "but you don't know the severity of the situation?" The professor fetched a Bunsen burner from a cupboard. He took a stool next to the Doctor and set up his equipment. "I know that you have escaped death more than once in your pursuit of the truth. To come all this way and not find out why your deaths were postponed would seem to annoy me, too." The Doctor could sense something mystifying about the old man. Something in his eyes that told him to be wary. "So tell me what you know. Start from the beginning." The professor shifted position and wandered across the room. "I'd like to forget it if it's all the same with you?"

The Doctor couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You'd like to forget that you summoned me here and not tell me what's going on? Why?" "I can't say," muttered the professor. "I think you're implicated in some way," shouted the Doctor. "There's something about all this," he said, looking down at his work, "that makes me feel queasy." The old man took his test tubes in his hands and decided to come clean. "Do you know why I'm out here, Doctor?" The time lord shook his head. "I'm out here because I work for the Daleks." The Doctor had already guessed. "You know, I thought so." The professor went on. "What I do for them has taken me down a dark path. However, should I refuse to obey them, - I too will suffer." The Doctor approached his work and took a sniff of a substance in a glass sphere, as big as the dome of a Dalek. "What's this?" he asked. The professor took the object from him. "That my friend is a Dalek mutant. I give them life."

Amber was taken into what appeared to be an old wartime bunker. It was dark inside. It led down into several lower levels and when they stopped on one, she was tied up and left alone. "You can't just leave me here like this!" she yelled, though no one was listening. "I have friends here, you know?" Her cries were ignored. "I just wish I knew where they were," she grumbled.

"You know," said the Doctor, watching the professor work. "I wonder why you choose to obey them when you so thoroughly despise them?" The professor looked round and sighed. "If I refuse, I die. It's pretty simple, really." As they talked, not realising at what cost, a Dalek patrolled the area. It could hear a stranger's voice from within the hut and became suspicious. "I've fought the Daleks before," said the Doctor, filling his friend in. "If you told me what's going on, I could help!" It was at that moment a Dalek entered and shrieked: "Exterminate!"

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**To be continued... **


	3. Chapter 3

**Doctor Who **

**The Dark Path**

**Episode 2 of 3**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

"No, wait...don't shoot!" yelped the professor, jumping to his feet. "Don't you know who I am?" The Dalek approached. "You are a slave to the Daleks." The professor didn't like to admit it but he was 'just' that. "You have also betrayed us!" it barked. "Betrayed you?" he repeated. "How?" The Dalek turned towards the Doctor. "This man is an enemy of the Daleks. You were about to shed light on his appearance here. For that - you must be punished!" Pig slaves entered the hut and took the professor outside. "Doctor...I'm sorry," he yelled, until he was completely out of sight.

"What do you want with me?" asked the Doctor, staring at the Dalek. "Why have you brought me to Skaro?" The Dalek refused to answer. "Tell me!" ordered the Doctor, "or I promise you...things will get pretty nasty!" The Dalek was joined by another of its kind. "We have your associates!" it announced, making the Doctor anxious. "You will come with us!" "And what then?" moaned the Doctor. "What could you have possibly brought us all here for?"

Clara and Danny had found the bunker in which Amber was located. They could hear her shrieks of fear as pig slaves guarded her. "Is that her?" whispered Clara. Danny nodded. "She's under the protection of what appear to be 'pigs'?!" Amber was fearful of the creatures around her. "Who do you serve?" she shouted. "You'll tell me...because if I'm to die here, then let this be my final request!" The pigs grunted. "You have that right," said one, commanding the attention of the rest of its kind. "Your final request is a plea for information, but what good is it when you'll soon be dead?" Amber stared at the pig until tears flooded her eyes. "Because I know that somewhere out there are my friends and they'll save me whatever happens!"

While this was going on, Clara and Danny made their way into the bunker undetected. "You wish to know who is behind this?" uttered the pig. "Have you heard of the Daleks?" Clara was pressed against a pillar when she heard the mention of the pepper pots. She turned to Danny who was stood beside her. "Did you hear that?" she whispered. "No, what?" he asked. "The Daleks," she said, quietly. "The Doctor's not going to be pleased!"

"You will come with us!" bellowed the Dalek, advancing towards the Doctor. "You will obey the Daleks." The Doctor was going nowhere. He shook his head and wagged his finger at the enemy. "I'm not coming with you because I don't have to," he said, clearly. "You'll tell me what I want to know and you'll tell me now." The Daleks looked at each other and almost shivered with fear. "Daleks do not take orders." The Doctor marched forward and looked into the two Dalek eye stalks ahead of him. "What have you brought me here for? Why have you brought me to Skaro?" The ground suddenly began to tremor. The Daleks rattled from side to side. The professor's hut shook with dust falling from the roof. "What's that?" bellowed the Doctor. "What are you keeping from me, Daleks?"

There was a strange sound from outside. It was the sound of engines from some great height coming in low over the hut. The rest of the Daleks were scared, just like the two guarding the Doctor. And then there was silence. The Doctor became frightened. The look on his face told of a man who was afraid. He could hear the Tardis' cloister bells ringing out, calling to the Timelord. "I demand to know what's going on!" he barked, clinging to the lab desk of the professors.

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**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Doctor Who **

**The Dark Path**

**Episode 2 of 3**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

There was a gurgling sound from one of the Dalek casings laid out on the desk of the Professors. "Doctor..." it spat. "You will save us..." The Doctor looked round and saw the mutant reaching out for him slowly. "Help us, Doctor..." The Doctor approached the mutation. "What would you ask of me?" he declared. "Why should I help you?" The Daleks guarding the Doctor became tetchy, jabbing the time lord in the back to get his attention. "You will ignore the mutated life forms and come with us!" bellowed one. "Time is running out!"

"What does that mean?" protested the Doctor. "You can't very well treat me like this!" The Dalek mutant laid a tendril on the Doctor's shoulder. "Help us, Doctor..." it pleaded, one last time. "I don't understand what's happening here?" he moaned. "Until I do, I can't help you!" He was led from the hut out into the open where the rest of the Daleks were waiting beside the Tardis. "What's that doing here?" announced the Doctor. "I left her on Earth!" A Dalek faced him. "It was beamed here by the Professor," it barked. "You and the Tardis are under Dalek control." The Doctor bit his lip thinking things through. "Then he lied," he muttered, referring to the Professor. "He said he could beam only one person here. Of course the Tardis doesn't count but if he could transport that, then why not my friends?"

A Dalek spoke with another of its kind in secret behind the hut. "Dalek Intelligence suggests space-ship landed close to base, following distress call," said one. "Dalek mutants recognise the Doctor as friend, not foe." There was an awkward silence. "The professor should not have been killed. His allegiances to the Doctor were a pathetic attempt to 'save face' in order to gain friends. We need the Doctor to save our species, to preserve the mutations and those new to Skaro shall be his lab-rats!" The Daleks returned from behind the hut to face their enemy. "It has been agreed that you shall help us." The Doctor was confused. "Now hold on a minute!" he exclaimed. "Agreed what with who? You certainly didn't ask me and if you had I'd have said no, unless...we discuss terms and conditions - right here, right now!" The Daleks looked at one another as if stunned by their enemies reaction. "Name them!"

"I want Clara, Danny and Amber given over to me. We work better alongside each other. And I want to know their alive and in good health. If either of them have been treated to interrogation or worse, you'll all suffer the consequences!" The Daleks agreed. "Good," replied the Doctor. "Now perhaps we can get on. Who's in charge here?" A Dalek approached from out of the darkness. Lights flickered across it as it passed the lantern of the Tardis. It's casing was black. The glow of it's eye stalk was red. And it was flanked by two standard Daleks, as it trundled towards the Doctor. "Time Lord!" it announced, greeting the Doctor. "Your operating theatre awaits!" The Doctor was puzzled. Whatever the Daleks had planned for him wasn't good.

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**To be continued...**


End file.
